Harvard’s Joe Allen explains health threat in Calif. wildfire smoke
What began as a brush fire on Nov. 8 north of Sacramento quickly intensified into the deadliest wildfire in California’s history. The Camp Fire has claimed 79 lives, scorched more than 150,000 acres, shrouded San Francisco, almost 200 miles away, in haze, and sent plumes of smoke across the country. Polluted air could linger for weeks, experts say. Assistant Professor Joe Allen is the head of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which explores how the design and construction of indoor spaces can affect health. The Gazette asked him about the danger that travels in wildfire smoke and how people can protect themselves from polluted air. Q&A Joe Allen GAZETTE: What kind of health effects are people facing with exposure to polluted air during an intense event like this? ALLEN: I think it’s a bit of a misnomer that exposure to outdoor-air pollutants only causes health effects after...